Top 3 Social Tips for 2014

A little while ago I reviewed the engaging presentation provided by Dominic Burch (@DomBurch) surrounding the emergence & growth of Social Media at ASDA.

As a follow up to this I have put together my Top 3 Social Tips for 2014 that can be used by any brand. These recommendations are what I would suggest will be the most important factors for any brand within 2014 and hopefully provide you with the core basis to tailor and adjust your own approach (dependent on your brand ethos):

1. Engaging Content

In my view, it’s great to have the vehicle (website), but you need the engine (content). This also ties into influencing other content creators within your sector, and the emerging ‘age of advocacy’ (your own employees) that Dominic Burch discussed last month.

These are the people best positioned to deliver such content and ensure not only that it is ‘on brand’ but also engaging and demands a user’s interaction.

2. Pay to Play

In short – you would be hard pressed to deliver a successful social media strategy without the involvement of paid exposure for your content.

The cynic would further focus on who the winners are within this strategy (social organisations like Twitter, Facebook or the brand?) and they should be considered.

3. Interplay with Social & TVA lot of brands don’t need to be sold on the importance of interplay with social and TV, as they’re already doing it. For those of you that aren’t – you need to be.

Users will interact with your brand in a multitude of ways, so you need to give them the option to interact. With the growth of dual screening (using multiple devices whilst watching the TV) if your TV advert is successful and engages with the user, they will use whatever hook is provided to engage with you.

This doesn’t stop at offline TV activity but also digital interactions (with what I call the “on demand” generation) where users don’t watch TV but use YouTube to get their TV/video fix. The use of Social tie-ins and interaction here are what ensures success and carries the message to a wider audience.

Summary

The core focus and requirement is that brands need to ensure they focus on adopting best practice principles. You need to ensure your social strategy (as always) has the “customer” in mind at all times, to enable its success.